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Einstrontium
Einstrontium Einstrontium is a type of material called a "Quantum Element". Its main use is as a fuel source, but abortive attempts have been made to weaponize it. General Properties *'Symbol:' ESr *'Atomic Number:' 68.5 *'Element Category:' Quantum Element *'Discovery:' Larger Hadron Collider (October 2067) *'Phase (at room temperature)': Liquid *'Melting Points:' -40.4 degrees Celsius / -17.2 degrees Celsius * *'Boiling points:' 256 degrees Celsius / (estimated) 976 degrees Celsius *'Physical Properties:' Einstrontium is a dark-silver radioactive liquid metal at room temperature. It is a relatively poor conductor of heat, but a good conductor of electricity. When ignited, it burns violently with a very bright pure white flame. *'Half-life:' 9374 days *Since its discovery, it has been observed only once in nature during the explosion of a particularly violent dwarf-star nova in the constellation of Centaurus. Discovery In the final months before the decommissioning of the Larger Hadron Collider in 2067, scientists from the European Union created a novel material which they dubbed a "Quantum Element". The material existed in a constant state of flux between energy states, and in doing so, atoms appeared to flit between the atomic structure of Strontium and Einsteinium, releasing a phenomenal amount of clean energy in the process. With the peak oil extraction long since passed, international energy companies fell over themselves to find ways to produce, stabilise and refine the element into a useable form. Their first challenge was to manufacture sufficient quantities of the strange element. The popular press of the time seized upon the initial discovery with interest, journalistic instincts piqued by the prospect of clean, free energy without the need for unsightly wind farms or solar panels nor hazardous mining on the Moon for deuterium and He-3. But slow progress in isolating any sizable quantities of Einstrontium was reflected in an increasingly negative press. This was re-inforced by (spurious) reports that working with the small quantities that existed of Einstrontium was causing mental health disorders amongst the research team. That, and the changable nature of the element resulted in the unkind nickname of "Schizophrenium" Refining By 2080, production methods had advanced sufficiently for the energy companies to begin refining the element. Enstrontium at room temperature appears as a liquid metal. Uniquely - since it consists of two elemental states simultaneously - the material has two boiling points and two freezing points. The destructive power of the element when mishandled became apparent to the entire world in 2082 when an attempt to produce a solid form of Einstrontium in 2082 resulted in the destruction of the greater Geneva area. An area of 145 square kilometers became consumed in a brilliant white fire that burned for twenty three days, releasing radiation down the entire Eastern edge of the Alps. Military applications were briefly explored, but the difficulty in containing the liquid rendered it impractical as a weapon. The "Geneva Conflagration" further weakened public confidence in the substance as a domestic fuel source, and research was confined to it's use in powering the spaceships that were starting to ferry colonists to the Moon and Mars. The Solis Lacus Disaster In 2095, with Martian colonisation at its height, the government of the United States of America rubber-stamped a project to establish a penal colony on the Southern hemisphere of Mars on the albedo feature known as Solis Lacus. Jointly funded with the Russian government, the project was doomed to failure and the prison complex was destroyed in 2097, shortly after the arrival of the first penal transport ship "The Stygian". The destruction of the prison and the loss of human life was attributed to a malfunction in the experimental Einstrontium reactors illegally installed at the complex. In fact, the Einstrontium tanks were deliberately blown up when an uncontrollable riot broke out in the prison, and the US Government feared that criminals from Earth were about to gain a foothold off-world. The disaster was a significant factor in the eventual disbanding of NASA and the advent of Chinese supremacy in the field of space exploration. It was only with the arrival of a Chinese clean-up crew in 2122 that the truth surrounding the events that culminated in the disaster at Solis Lacus came to light. Weaponizing Einstrontium Einstrontium has proven to be too unstable an element to be reliably used in weaponry, having an alarming propensity to detonate unexpectedly in transit. The most infamous use of an Einstrontium bomb was the detonation on the Parasonian moon of Wichestyt in which the leader of the PLM Lady Felicia Cassabi was killed. Post-Hades Gate Inevitably, the role for Einstrontium was diminished after Dahl wormhole technology became widely used. However, starships still needed to travel from the Hades Gates to their planet of destination and Einstrontium continued to be the fuel of choice for the quantum piles that powered all human spaceships to and from the wormholes until well into the Theolosian Wars .